Palin: ‘Death Panels’ Are Like Reagan’s ‘Evil Empire’

Sarah Palin is acknowledging that "death panels" aren't part of Democrats' health care bills. But, she says, she's been talking about them to make a point -- and she's comparing her use of the term to Ronald Reagan's cold war references to the "evil empire." Palin said President Obama is "not lying" when he claims that "death panels" aren't included in Democrats' health care plans, but added: "It's kind like what Reagan used to do, though, when he talked about, say, the ‘evil empire.' You're never going to find the evil empire on a map of the world," Palin told ABC's Barbara Walters, in a portion of her interview that aired on ABCNews.com's "Top Line" today. "And yet he talked about that, in terms that people could understand -- kind of rationing down, not complicating the issue. But he, with the issue of the evil empire at the time, used those two words to get people to shake up, wake up, find out what's going on here. Now, had he been criticized and, and mocked, and, and condemned for ever using a term that wasn't actually there on a map, or in documents, we probably would never have succeeded in, in crushing the evil empire, and winning that." Asked if Obama -- who has pushed back aggressively against the notion of "death panels" being part of the Democrats' bills, is a liar, Palin said no: "He is not lying, in that those two words will not be found in any of those thousands of pages of different variations of the health care bill. No, ‘death panel' isn't there," Palin said. "But he's incorrect, and he is disingenuous, if he is telling the American public that it doesn't come down to people -- committees, bureaucrats -- deciding who, ultimately, will receive government-run health care, if that's where we end up. With government-run health care, the only way to provide all the services to those who will need this health care is to ration it at some point. Who will do the rationing? It will be bureaucrats." "They will be able to call the shots, based on somebody's subjective judgment of productivity, of somebody's life, who will receive the health care that needs to be rationed, and who will not. So, it was funny though, that the president said, ‘There's no such thing as death panels in there,' and some Congress members were saying there's no such thing. And yet then, steps were taken to take the ‘death panels' out."